Visit of the Bishop of LondonNext week the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres will visit Ireland. On Thursday morning he will meet clergy in the Church of Ireland College of Education and in the evening, at 6.30pm he will have an evening with laity in St Catherine’s church, Thomas, Street, Dublin.

On Friday and Saturday Bishop Chartres will be one of the main speakers at a conference on mission at Dromantine, Newry, Co. Down. Organized by the Council for Mission the conference, which aims to include representatives from every part of the Church of Ireland, seek to provide an opportunity to clarify and further embrace the current mission of the Church. The key question for the conference will be ‘How do we articulate the mission of the Church of Ireland in such a way that all Church traditions can embrace, support and enact it?’

In addition to the Bishop of London the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Revd Dr Heather Morris, will be a keynote speaker, and the conference will be facilitated by Andrew McNeile and the Dean of Ossory, the Very Revd Katharine Poulton.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the address at the 10.45am Choral Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, will be given by Dr Paul O’Grady from the Department of Philosophy in TCD. Dr O’Grady will offer some philosophical reflections of the Golden Rule ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’. In Kill o’the Grange parish, Co. Dublin, the guest preacher, at the 150th anniversary celebrations, will be the Bishop of Limerick, Killaloe & Ardfert.

In St Macartin’s cathedral, Enniskillen, tomorrow (Sunday) evening at 7pm there will be Choral Evensong on the Eve of St Macartin’s Day when the preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh. At the same time, in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Cashel, the Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory, will institute Canon Gerald Field to the incumbency of the Cashel union of parishes, after which he will be installed as Dean of Cashel.

This year’s Church of Ireland Theological Lectures at Queen’s will be held on Monday and Tuesday evenings at 6pm in the Geography Building, Elmwood Avenue. The speaker will be the Rt Revd Graham Cray, the Church of England’s Archbishops’ Missioner and Leader of the Fresh Expressions Team. On Monday he will speak on ‘Church Rediscovered. Perceptions of the Church from the Fresh Expressions Movement’ and on Tuesday his subject will be ‘ Mission Re–Shaped. Perspectives on Mission, Church Planting and Missional Leadership from the Fresh Expressions Movement’.

On Thursday evening the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross will preside at a Diocesan Evensong in St Luke’s church, Douglas, to say farewell to the Ven. Robin Bantry White who retires from the stipendiary ministry on 1 March. The archdeacon will preach.

The Girls’ Choir of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, has announced a new partnership with Barretstown Children’s Charity. A Song For Barretstown featuring Joyce Murphy, the Girl Choristers of Christ Church Cathedral, directed by Ian Keatley, and a host of Irish musicians and broadcasters, is now available on iTunes. The work of Barretstown Children’s Charity can be supported by downloading a copy of the song, and a video is on Facebook and Twitter. Each time the song is played on local radio and television stations, money will be donated to help support the work of Barretstown. The Girl Choristers of Christ Church Cathedral will be performing a special concert for Barretstown in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, in May 2014.